The Jumbotron Unexpectation
by Nebuleste
Summary: What happens when Sheldon and Penny's faces appear on the Kiss Cam?


Sheldon tried shielding his eyes from the bright rays of the sun as beads of sweat began to roll down his neck and forehead. He estimated it to be ninety degrees outside and it felt like he was slowly roasting to death wearing his two-layered shirts.

His thoughts were stopped by the feeling of water sprayed on the side of his neck and when he quickly turned his head to the direction where it came from, water was sprayed directly on his face.

Sheldon brought up one hand to wipe his eyes and after opening them, he saw Penny holding a pink misting fan, smiling cheekily at him and suppressing her laughter.

"Now, why on earth would you do that?" Sheldon said as he dried his face off with his shirt.

"You looked like you were about to overheat so I figured you needed a little something to cool down," Penny replied with a small giggle at the end. "Don't say you didn't appreciate it. If I used this when it was still cold, you'd be asking for more."

Sheldon shook his head and snatched the toy away from his neighbor, earning a stern glare from her. "It's empty now and there's no need to use it."

"I'm going to refill it with water from the bathroom, genius."

"I suggest purchasing ice from one of the vendors inside and waiting for them to melt inside the bottle. It would then be very refreshing to use in this temperature."

"I don't have any money. Leonard left because of a nosebleed remember?" Penny responded, putting away the misting fan back in her purse and resumed watching the game in front of her.

"Of course I remember. We weren't even outside for twenty minutes when Hofstadter could not tolerate this kind of weather," he said as he checked the watch on his wrist. "Amy should be back soon from dropping Leonard home. It is his fault for suggesting this in the first place."

"Oh, come on! Baseball's fun to watch! I'm sure you find it a little interesting and exciting," the blonde grinned up to him and he rolled his eyes instantaneously. "The Angels are winning, see?"

His neighbor lifted her hand and pointed at the scoreboard, waiting for a reaction from him. "If it were interesting, you wouldn't need to be engaging in conversation with me but instead, concentrating on what's happening out in the field."

She narrowed her eyes at the physicist before looking forward. "Well, you sure are a box of fun huh, Dr. Cooper?"

Sheldon cocked his head towards her. "Sarcasm?"

"You bet, sweet cheeks."

A half an hour later, a timeout was called and Sheldon was relieved. Penny wouldn't let him use the bathroom during the game because she didn't want to be alone, even if his bladder was about to explode from drinking bottles of water since the game started.

He returned to his seat with more water bottles and a hot dog Penny requested him to buy for her. His phone began to ring in his pocket and he answered it, hoping that it was Amy so he could ask her to take him home.

"What's up?" Penny asked him after Sheldon ended the call and released an exasperated sigh.

"Amy's stuck in traffic and cannot drive me home any earlier," Sheldon answered albeit very annoyed. "Looks like I will be sticking around here long enough to finish this."

"That's the spirit," she gleamed and then took a bite out of her food as the Jumbotron screen in the arena turned on and a loud booming voice was heard throughout the cheering crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It's time for the Kiss Cam!"

Penny watched as couples appeared one by one on the screen. First up were married parents, then an older couple, a little boy who gave a peck on the cheek of a young girl, and a man who kissed his glass of beer rather than his girlfriend.

Simultaneously, Sheldon was rambling on the history of kiss cams and the blonde beside him rolled her eyes and let him continue even though she wasn't listening, but only paying attention to the camera above. As he went on, Penny can't help but giggle about how passionate he was on the topic even if he spoke badly about it

"The kiss cam tradition originated in California in the early 1980s, as a way to fill in the gaps in play in professional baseball games, taking advantage of the possibilities of the then-new giant video screens. In addition-"

Sheldon abruptly stopped and Penny wondered what caused him to. She turned to him and saw his unmoving body, and it worried her.

"Sweetie? What's wrong?"

His finger slowly pointed up the electronic screen that showed a tall man wearing a red flash t-shirt over black sleeves and chinos along with a woman wearing a bright purple dress. The crowd began shouting for them to kiss, and Penny froze for a second.

The camera seemed like it wasn't going to move on until they did some kind of action, and Penny shot Sheldon and devious look and leaned to his ear.

"You gotta kiss me, Sheldon," she said as the spectators waited and chanted in the stadium. "Come on or our faces won't go away."

Penny knew he would be opposed to doing such thing and she wasn't really forcing him to kiss her. She only wanted to see his response and being able to tease her uptight neighbor who cared about his cleanliness and aversion to germs more than the money he made.

He sat silently, trying to ignore the people around him with an irritated expression on his face. Penny decided to kiss him solely on the cheek to please everyone and move on. She would get countless strikes for this, but she didn't care. She was never concerned or afraid of the strikes he imposed on her.

She moved her body to face him, and before Penny could press her lips on his cheek, Sheldon had swooped down to kiss her right on the mouth. His hands cupped her face as she stared at him wide-eyed and caught off-guard. A brief moment later, Penny started to melt into the kiss and closed her eyes. It lasted six seconds, she counted, and the thought of repercussions didn't pass through her mind at all.

As quick when his lips made contact with hers, Sheldon pulled back and adjusted himself in his seat without a word as the crowd applauded.

The screen turned off and the game resumed, but Penny was left breathless and in a state of shock. Her germaphobic friend had stolen a kiss from her without warning and didn't appear to be unnerved by it. She shook her head, pinching the skin of her arm to make sure she was really awake and then tapped on Sheldon's shoulder.

"Hello, Penny," he simply said.

"Why did you do that?" Penny asked straightforwardly.

Sheldon shrugged. "The kiss?"

"Yes, the kiss. You hate germs and touching other people! You're also not supposed to kiss your roommate's girlfriend."

"But we were on the kiss cam. As I observed social interaction, I came to conclude that the only way to move on is that if we kissed," Sheldon replied and he still wasn't rummaging through his messenger bag to find his antibacterial wipes.

"We could have just kissed on the cheek, Sheldon."

He looked to her confused. "Are you upset that I crossed a boundary or upset that I was the one who kissed you and you find it unsatisfactory?"

"You crossed a boundary! Friends don't do that to each other. Especially if they are dating their respective best friends."

They stayed silent for a while, and then Sheldon whispered, "Leonard isn't my best friend."

"Huh?"

"I said Leonard isn't my best friend," the physicist repeated.

Penny was intrigued. "Why not? You're his roommate and you've known each other for like a decade now."

Sheldon sighed deeply through his nose. "About three years ago, I was puzzled by the term 'best friend' and what it entailed. So, I googled it and by urban dictionary's definition- best friends are the first people you think about when you make plans. They are the first people you go to when you need someone to talk to. You will phone them up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in your life."

"When you're sad they will try their hardest to cheer you up. They give the best hugs in the world. They are the shoulder to cry on, because you know that they truly care about you. In most cases they would take a bullet for you, because it would be too painful to watch you get hurt," he recited from memory.

"Isn't that what Leonard does for you?" She inquired.

"I then contemplated about my friendship with Leonard and deduced that he couldn't be my best friend."

Penny scooted closer to Sheldon's side. "Then who's your best friend."

"You."

She waited for a bazinga before realizing that he was telling the truth. Sheldon considered her, Penny, as his best friend.

"When I make plans for let's say Halo, I always want you in my team therefore I keep your schedule in mind. When something is bothering me, like the ladybug in my ear, I come to you for assistance. While I was on the arctic trip, we communicated for most of the time and even though you did not understand what I typed in the email, you made an effort to respond. When Leonard tampered my data, you were the one who comforted me after I was devastated by his betrayal."

Sheldon locked his eyes with her green ones. "You're the only one who has ever hugged me that doesn't make me feel constricted in any way," Sheldon elaborated and Penny was speechless by the end.

"Wow," she could only say.

"Yep," he mimicked her and she playfully glared at him. "I do apologize for causing you distress after the kiss. I felt obligated to and if it makes you feel better, I thought your lips were soft and stimulating."

Penny's jaw dropped. To her, it sounded like flirting but she wasn't sure. Maybe it was merely his observation. Sheldon's a scientist after all.

"Thank you. Your lips were quite nice too. You're a good kisser as well."

Sheldon smiled. "I appreciate it. I'm still learning techniques for Amy, and it's nice hearing compliments from an expert."

He could have been unintentionally insulting her with his choice of words, but Penny didn't want to break the gaze they shared. His blue eyes were on her as the Angels ran a home run and the people around them jumped up and down from their seats when they scored.

"Your kiss was satisfactory to me, Sheldon," Penny said as she sat with her back leaning against the chair again. "If you were wondering."

"It was for me as well," he responded as the crowd died down.

Penny let out a smile and nodded. She wondered what happened to times like these. The times when they often hung out and constantly joke around. The times when Penny would flirt with Sheldon and he would be completely oblivious to it. The times when they were alone doing laundry on Saturday nights. The times when they would look at each other in a certain way and people would think there was something more than friendship between them.

These days, it was always Leonard and Penny, Sheldon and Amy. She and Sheldon rarely spent time together because they were too caught up in their own lives. Penny had been pondering for a long time about what would have happened if she went after Sheldon the first day they met. It had always been Sheldon ever since the beginning, but Leonard had gotten to her first.

The universe wasn't capable to have Sheldon and Penny together, and she learned to accept it. Yet she couldn't help but dream about another universe where they had taken up the chance and enter a relationship without hurting the friends that they had made and cherished over the years.

"Hey, sorry for taking so long," Amy's voice was heard as she squeezed through people and returned to the seat next to her boyfriend. "Traffic was a bitch but I'm here now. So, what did I miss?"

Sheldon and Penny didn't say a word, but only looked out onto the field. They wouldn't admit it to each other or to anyone else, but the spark from the day they met was reignited by a single kiss, reassuring them that the chemistry was still alive and only waiting for a catalyst to finally set things in motion.

**It has been a long time since I posted something new here, but life caught up and writing stories became very difficult. I'm still a Shenny fan all the way, even after watching the new episodes of Season 8. Let's say it's disappointing to us Shennys and I am planning on quitting the show soon. Anyways, I am going to get back to the groove of things here and hopefully more fics of Sheldon and Penny to come!**


End file.
